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Indonesian BJJ Pioneer Niko Han says MMA becoming mainstream

Niko Han has not stepped into the ONE Fighting Championship (ONE FC) to compete before, but the martial arts pioneer in Indonesia is a well-known figure in the community.

Based in Bali, Han is the first ever Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt from Indonesia and is credited for bringing the art of grappling to the Silat-entrenched nation of Indonesia.

En route to earning his black belt, Han has trained under the legendary Rickson Gracie, Jean Jacques Machado, Eddie Bravo and Marc Laimon. Han is credited as being the father of BJJ in Indonesia, having taught the ground game to most of the martial artists emerging from Indonesia and founding an extensive chain of BJJ gyms under the Synergy brand. He recently awarded his protégé and long-time student Fransino Tirta with a black belt as well.

Tirta, who has been training with Han for almost a decade, will make his debut on Asia’s largest mixed martial arts organization this Saturday in front of his home crowd in Jakarta.

Sharing the limelight will be three other Indonesian warriors, Yohan Mulia Legowo, Zuli Silawanto and Desi Rahayu.

“The upcoming ONE FC event in Jakarta is looking great, and I’m rooting for all the Indonesian fighters. Having ONE FC for the 3rd time in Jakarta is absolutely helping MMA to make some headway in Indonesia, there are more MMA fans and practitioners in Indonesia now than ever before, and it's going to continue to get bigger,” said Han.

Though his protégé is fighting in ONE FC for the first time, professional MMA is nothing new to Tirta who currently has a record of 15-0.

“I’m very excited that Fransino is stepping into the ONE FC cage for the first time. He is there to make a statement for sure!” continued Han.

Having helped build the best fighter to ever step out of Indonesia, we asked Han what he felt was the reason the reason why Indonesia was not yet on the world map of MMA.

“In order for Indonesia to produce more fighters like Fransino, there needs to be an obsession to become the best; dedication, drive, discipline, passion, and a good team that knows how to train smart in the continuously evolving sport of MMA,” he explained.

With four Indonesian fighters featuring on the stacked card of ONE FC: ERA OF CHAMPIONS coming up in a few days time and the buzz surrounding ONE FC’s third arrival in Jakarta, the opportunity for MMA to go mainstream in Indonesia has finally arrived.

“I'm very excited about the growth of MMA in Indonesia, the sport is slowly but surely becoming mainstream,” he concluded.